The present invention relates to adjusting and controlling electronic equipment for automotive vehicles and, more particularly it refers to a transformer device for the detection of vehicle attitude. The device comprises a signal sensor including a primary coil and two secondary coils, all enclosed inside the vehicle shock absorber and fixed on its working cylinder so as to be coaxial with its piston. The coils cooperate with an amplification means amplifying the signal detected by the sensor.
In the automotive field different detection systems are employed in order to determine the height above ground level of a vehicle. The sensors of these detection systems are usually placed between the vehicle body and the vehicle wheels, or it is pre-assembled in the shock absorber so as to avoid, through this integrated construction, problems of mounting the connections and the final assembly. The sensor employed can be of any known type, but the utilization of electrical windings, such as coils, fixed inside the cylinder of the shock absorber, is more frequently adopted. Depending on the quantity to be measured these windings can be one or more coils associated with the magnet core movement following the change of the piston position inside the shock absorber. By using the described coils with a detector which is based on the induction principle, it is possible to measure the change of the electrical quantities involved in the operation and therefore the relative positions of the piston and cylinder of the shock absorber. However, the measurement carried out by this detector requires subsequent thermal compensations, due to temperature variations during operation. Furthermore, overall dimension problems in housing the coils and the relating detection system have been encountered.